Become a Homestay Provider

We are always looking to expand our fantastic team of homestay providers. To become one of our hosts you need to be prepared to devote time to your guests, feed them well and provide a clean, comfortable and welcoming environment. This can be a really rewarding experience for you and your family.

Being a Homestay Provider is an extremely rewarding experience – you will meet people from all over the world, learn about foreign cultures, traditions, and languages and even develop life-long friendships.

Many of our homestay providers have forged lifelong friendships with their students. Sharing our culture with guests from around the world is a way of enriching their stay here in Britain and learning more about their way of life too. Everyone benefits and as such, you can think of yourselves as ambassadors for the UK.

You should be able to provide a single bedroom with or without private bathroom, breakfast and dinner daily plus lunch at weekends. You need to live within 35 minutes on foot from the school and be close to a regular bus route.

About Our Students

Students come to us from all over the world, from as far afield as Korea, Brazil and Japan. We also receive lots of European students, from countries like Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. Most book individually, either through one of our reliable agents, a company or directly with us. They have often been recommended to us by a friend. Occasionally, however, we have groups of students of the same nationality.

Although we accept students from 11 years old (or as young as 6 if they come with their parents), many students are mature adults who need to learn English for their profession or simply for pleasure and travel. Other students are serious examination candidates who will take Cambridge exams after their course. Some stay for several weeks or months in order to prepare for further or higher education. We may even have clients that are past retirement age and want to learn English ‘just for fun’. More than 50% of our students are aged over 30 and around 25% are over 50.

How to apply

You will find our Homestay Application Form below and once you have returned this to us, we will contact you and one of our staff will come and visit you for your first inspection. Once you have joined our list we still start to send bookings through to you.

At the end of their stay, each student completes a feedback form on the school, life in Torquay and their experiences in their homestay. As well as regular inspections, this is our way of monitoring our host families and supporting you as a Homestay Provider.

You will be supported by our staff and we provide you with an on-line Homestay Handbook (also available in print) to help you get going.

Homestay Application Form

The Homestay Selection Process

A Homestay Host has an important role to play in ensuring either the success or failure of a student enjoying their visit to Britain. The welcome the student receives on entering your home is a vital element of their language learning experience.

Torquay International School is accredited by the British Council, which means we uphold very high standards throughout the school, including our accommodation. To maintain this accreditation, we must pass a rigorous inspection every 4 years, based on the criteria of excellence of the British Council.

It is with these criteria in mind that the Accommodation and Welfare Manager will recruit a new homestay host:

Documentation

A clean Enhanced DBS check
Your gas appliances, including your boiler, oven, hob and gas fires should be serviced on an annual basis by a Gas Safe Registered Engineer. Under Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994 you must be in possession of a current Gas Safety Certificate.
2 references
You will be required to carry out a fire risk assessment of your premises
Complete an online Safeguarding and Prevent training

Environment + facilities

A welcoming and caring environment
A high standard of decoration, cleanliness and repair
Adequate heating and lighting
A sufficiently spacious bedroom, adequately equipped with natural light and ventilation
A desk or table for private study, with sufficient hanging & drawer space in the bedroom
Adequate bathroom facilities including a shower
A car for meeting the student on arrival or dropping the student off, especially on their first morning in school
A computer with email is useful for receiving bookings and other information but not essential.
WIFI

Homestay Payments

Homestay payments are made by Chrissie and her email address is chrissie@tisenglish.co.uk.

Payments to homestay providers are made monthly in arrears. They are made electronically – i.e. bank-to-bank. The money will simply go from our account into yours. This system of payment is known as BACS and you will receive advance notice of your payment by post or email.

Homestay Categories

Single or Twin Standard Homestay
Single bedroom and a shared bathroom
Single or Twin Premium Homestay
Single bedroom and a private bathroom.

Please note: we never place our students in twin bedrooms unless they request to share with a friend or partner. 90% of our students request single room accommodation.